The Teacher - Examiner and Feedback Problems

Other related complaints on marking include: some assignments are returned too late to help students in the next assignments, assignments are often returned with insufficient comment to be of use in later assignments. Students also complained to Welfare staff or inconsistency of marking between different tutors in the same subject. Clearly, ITA as the Science Faculty Committee reported "....has emphasised the role of teachers as examiners rather than teachers". According to the Welfare memorandum of 1973 "We have received many comments which suggest some staff are not very sure of what they are assessing and how to assess." Staff as well as students have been under increased workloads and pressure because of degree changes and ITA and where lecturers are uncertain of in term assessment, this is passed on to students in vague misleading and confused ITA schemes which in turn increases anxiety and pressure for students. ITA at VUW has shown that because this type of assessment emphasises the assessing role of the teacher the quality of teaching becomes more important especially in the shorter courses. It is unfortunate that the obvious difficulty some staff have had in adjusting to new degree changes and assessment forms has not been reflected in the number attending the Voluntary teaching courses at the Teaching and Research Centre.